Draft:Libraries and sustainability

Sustainability in libraries has been argued to be a natural extension of library ethics and information ethics, and is a fairly new research field, having begun in the 1990s. Donella Meadows has described the library as one of the "wonders of sustainability". The United Nations, in Agenda 21 (1992), articulated the idea of integration - that sustainability efforts should be distributed among existing institutions, such as libraries. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) argues that sustainable development depends on equitable access to information, which libraries provide. Sustainability is important to libraries because they have significant budgets of public money. While the library's traditional role as an information provider is important for supporting activists, it has been argued that libraries can and should be doing more. Public libraries, as part of local government, can support local governments' sustainability efforts. Libraries' roles in the sustainable information society should also be considered. Libraries have arguably predated the sharing economy.

The Talloires Declaration (1990) was the first sustainability initiative in higher education. As of 2010, it was noted that academic libraries did not have their own sustainability measures or those adopted from their institutions.

Library carbon footprint is an issue of note. While libraries, compared to road transport or power plants, are "relatively clean", they use energy and water and produce pollution. It has been proposed that increased use of digital resources can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions relating to book storage and photocopying.

Library energy consumption is an issue of note, as some libraries are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and some library materials have to be kept at a certain temperature and humidity level.

Collection development is another area where sustainability can be considered. The nature of loaning out resources multiple times naturally reuses materials. The sustainability of scholarship is understood to be the concern with preserving the research collection for future generations, and ensuring that scholarly communication is independent of commercial publishers. It has been argued that it is important to have good collections on sustainability topics, but furthermore, to provide access to tools such as energy meters to promote sustainability in the community.

The American Library Association (ALA) created a Task Force for the Environment in 1989, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Earth Day. It had two objectives: "to make librarians and others more aware of diverse environmental information sources" and "to recognize environmental concerns within libraries and seek solutions to them". It maintains an open access journal, the Electronic Green Journal.

Disaster planning is part of sustainability in libraries. Libraries can become community hubs in the aftermath of disasters, where emergency relief is provided. While damage to the library can be part of disasters, libraries can also provide essential services to the community, such as assistance in filling out relief aid forms.

The ALA passed a resolution on the importance of sustainable libraries in 2015. The ALA Special Task Force on Sustainability was created in 2017 and produced a white paper in 2018 about sustainability in libraries, where it argued that a paradigm shift was needed to regard sustainability as a "lens through which all decisions should be analyzed".

The ALA added sustainability to its' core values of librarianship in 2019. As of this time, while green libraries and green ICT were well-discussed in the literature, there was opportunity to expand sustainability to more aspects of information science. Information for sustainable development can support sustainable societies in a number of ways. It can bridge the digital divide, creating equality of access to information. It can gather and structure metrics on sustainability, essential for making sustainable choices. It can support people to participate in the process of sustainability.

Green libraries
"Green libraries" are a way of ensuring sustainability in libraries. "Green libraries" are typically understood to be library buildings that incorporate green building practices when they are built, but these green technologies and equipment are grounded in training, education, and everyday sustainability actions. In 1998, the residents served by the Fayetteville Public Library expressed a desire for an "environmentally efficient building". The new library, opened in 2004, received LEED-NC Silver certification. Louise Schaper, the executive director of the Fayetteville Public Library, noted that while the building had been sustainably designed, there was room for sustainability improvement in the routine operations of the library. Schaper argued that part of the library's mission should be to be a "green pioneer and a champion". Green library operations and practices are also an important topic in the literature.

Sustainable communities
Rebekkah Aldrich argues that sustainable thinking is about the "alignment of a library's core values and resources", stating that the community is at the centre of the library's mission, that disruption is part of life and that libraries can lead to a better future for all. Supporting sustainable communities can help libraries to meet the challenges of the future. Libraries aim to be relevant to their communities by creating services that meet their needs, and can support sustainable initiatives in their communities through being a "catalyst, connector, and convener" for the community. Public libraries contribute to sustainable communities by enhancing literacy skills, improving job opportunities for their community, supporting small business, universal Internet access, environmental information, and modelling green practices. Aldrich argues that libraries need to implement a systems thinking approach, creating sustainable institutions that contribute to sustainable communities through the interplay of policy, professional development, building operations, financial planning, collection development, community involvement, and partnerships.

Triple bottom line
A triple bottom line approach to sustainability is often used in libraries, covering social, environmental and economic sustainability. Chowdhury proposed that the goal of social sustainability was to create a "better (well-informed) and healthy society" through providing equitable access to information. Chowdhury proposed that the goal of environmental sustainability was to "ensure reductions in the environmental impact of digital information systems and services". Chowdhury proposed that the goal of economic stability was to "provide cheaper, easier and better access to quality digital information through a sustainable business model". A fourth area, of cultural diversity, has sometimes been proposed, although arguably it overlaps the social sustainability area. Alternatively, a fourth area may be technological. Sometimes, measures that are taken to achieve one kind of sustainability impact on another kind of sustainability. This triple bottom line approach is in alignment with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In academic libraries, the continuing growth of collections, services and building costs contradicts the triple bottom line.

Economic sustainability
Economic sustainability has been described as "the hardest part of sustainability - how to pay for it all". Without economic sustainability, no other form of sustainability can be achieved.

Millennium Development Goals
Librarians and others in the information professions are in a unique position to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. It is often the dissemination of key information, e.g., about health, that changes daily life and can affect an entire community.

Millennium Development Goals are not only for the developing world. Maret (2011) specifically addresses how U.S. public libraries can help the United States meet the goals. The work of U.S. librarians has evolved in a manner that incorporates human rights values and precepts without having generally used the language that characterizes the philosophical and ethical goals of human rights and human development. Librarians are able to further the Millennium Development Goals and contribute by providing information and services to all people in varying formats and languages.

Albright and Kwooya (2007) report that cultural and financial barriers in Sub-Saharan Africa impede LIS education programs. As a result, MDG goals for poverty, healthcare, and education fall short. High rates of HIV/AIDS, and escalating child and maternal mortality are the direct result of poverty and substandard medical care. Limited instruction in information access and exchange contributes to this ongoing dilemma.

Sustainable Development Goals
IFLA launched the Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development in 2014, which aimed to influence the United Nations Post-2015 Development Agenda (the Sustainable Development Goals).

The Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by the United Nations in 2015, provide a framework of sustainability goals that cover economic, environmental and social development. IFLA states that libraries help achieve all of the Sustainable Development Goals. Unlike the MDG, the SDG also targets developed countries in its aspirations. All 17 of the SDGs can be realised in the library context.

Sustainability in education for librarianship
Education for librarianship covering sustainability and libraries is also an important aspect: the first online continuing education course, "Eco-Librarians: Changing Our Communities One Step at a Time" was held in 2008. As of 2014, 2019 and 2021, there were still calls to embed sustainability in library and information science education.

Challenges
Challenges to sustainability in libraries that exist include climate change, the defunding and dismantling of the public sphere, the need to stop exploitation (both of humans and the environment) in the creation of technological infrastructure, and the consolidation of the publishing industry and dismantling of the information commons.